Published on Feb 20, 1998
Somewhere in a corner of the White House, Tipper Gore is shaking
uncontrollably. One of her biggest nightmares when she was head of
the P.M.R.C., Blackie Lawless and W.A.S.P., are back with their
second live set and ninth album,
Double Live Assassins. This album is sure to make Washington
wives faint with shock, make your parents turn away in disgust, and
make the dog howl with pain. In short, it’s a great album.
Their first live effort since
Live… In The Raw, Lawless and crew are here in all their
blood and glory (or is that “gory?”) from their
K.F.D. tour. While a good portion of their career is covered
in the sixteen songs that make up this two-disc set, it displays
the power that W.A.S.P. has always had – and even emphasizes the
fact that Lawless is quite a good songwriter. Exhibit “A” to back
this up: “Wild Child,” a song which loses a little bit in the
translation from the studio version, but not much.
If a live setting does anything for W.A.S.P., it takes the
industrial edges off some of the songs on
K.F.D., making them a little less scary than they sounded on
their studio conterparts. In one sense, this works to W.A.S.P.’s
advantage; to my ear, their more all-out metal sound they made
(in)famous on songs like “Blind In Texas,” “Animal” and “L.O.V.E.
Machine” is a better fit. Still, it is nice to hear some of the
better selections from
K.F.D. here, including “Kill Your Pretty Face” and “U”.
Another thing that
Double Live Assassins accomplishes is it instills more of a
respect for some of the latter-day material Lawless and his band
was creating near the end of their first run as W.A.S.P. The
selections from
The Headless Children and
The Crimson Idol take on a whole new life here, and make me
want to run back into the Pierce Archives and dust off my copies of
these albums.
There’s also no doubting that the musical partnership between
Lawless and lead guitarist Chris Holmes is an amazing yin-yang
relationship not unlike that of the Davies brothers of The Kinks.
These two guys constantly feed off of each other, and push the
other to new musical limits in their genre. (Bassist Mike Duda and
drummer Stet Howland, who also played on
K.F.D., do an incredible job here – Howland might be the
best drummer W.A.S.P. has ever had.)
Of course, it wouldn’t be W.A.S.P. if they weren’t offending
someone. Never mind the fact they’re a decade older now, Lawless
will still send shivers up the Moral Majority’s spine… especially
after I’ve read about some of the things he’s done on this stage
show. (And is it sacrilege for me to mention that Lawless looks
like a deranged version of The Crow on the album cover? Just a
thought…) If you’re easily offended, don’t bother picking this
album up – when you buy a W.A.S.P. album, you usually know what is
in store for you.
The long-time fans could probably rattle off a grocery list of
songs they wish had been included on
Double Live Assassins, but the simple fact of the matter is
this is one of the better live albums out on the market – and the
live album is the most difficult thing for an artist or band to
produce. W.A.S.P. have masterfully pulled it off, and
Double Live Assassins is one album that will keep you up
late at night until you’ve finished every last song – and then
you’ll want to start with disc one again.
This could be W.A.S.P.’s best effort yet, and
Double Live Assassins is one disc that belongs in your
shopping cart, in your CD player, and embedded in your head. It is
one of the most pleasant surprises of 1998.